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The French newsweekly Marianne calls him "the most hated man in
France." A Socialist legislator recently compared him to Pierre Laval the wartime French official who most enthusiastically collaborated with the
nation's Nazi occupiers. Such contempt isn't usually directed at someone in
a rather anonymous cabinet role. But Eric Besson, the Minister for
Immigration, Integration and National Identity, is different: he's currently
overseeing a national debate on French identity that detractors on both the
left and the right say stigmatizes minorities and immigrants. And yet,
despite the fierce criticism and controversy, he's the cabinet member
President Nicolas Sarkozy is relying on most to secure conservative gains in
regional elections in March.

As the Marianne headline attests, there's something in Besson that
just about everyone in France can detest. A former Socialist party official,
Besson is considered the consummate traitor by the left after defecting from
the 2007 presidential campaign of Ségolène Royal over strategy differences
and throwing his support behind Sarkozy, the conservative candidate. Since
then, he's embraced his new right-wing faith with the zealousness of a
convert, making many long-time conservatives uncomfortable. Chief among his
more hard-line moves has been the decision to hold an ongoing series of
town hall meetings across France to define the French national identity. Some say
the forums are already being used by disgruntled right-wingers to blame
crime, rising unemployment and other social ills on minorities and
immigrants. Opponents also argue that they play into the hands of Jean-Marie
Le Pen's extreme-right National Front (FN) party. (See pictures of Bastille Day celebrations.)

"Mixing national identity with immigration is an error," says conservative
legislator and former Interior Minister François Baroin, who is one of
several politicians on the right calling for the debates to be ended. "It's
opening Pandora's box." Former conservative premiers Alain Juppé and
Jean-Pierre Raffarin have similarly questioned the "utility" and
"intellectual rigor" of the debates. And Sarkozy's own commissioner for
ethnic diversity, Yazid Sebag, admitted to being "not very comfortable" with
the initiative.

But Besson has at least one key figure on his side: Sarkozy. On Wednesday,
the President expressed his "very strong support" for Besson, whom he
described as "the target of unrivaled attacks," including from "friends on
his own side." He added that Besson had only introduced the national
identity debates that Sarkozy himself had wanted. Neither Besson nor Sarkozy
has been shy in acknowledging that the formerly taboo topics of national
identity and immigration are now such a concern among voters that they're
fair game to be taken up by mainstream conservatives. Some pundits also see
stealing a page from Le Pen's playbook as the best way for Sarkozy to woo FN
voters to his camp ahead of the March elections, just as he did in 2007 when
his presidential campaign took up anti-immigration and law-and-order
platforms to win over far-right voters. Plus, Besson has argued, if you
steal FN voters, you will eventually kill the party. (See pictures of the French cracking down on migrants.)

"We should have never abandoned values that are part of our Republican
patrimony to the National Front," Besson told RTL radio in defending the
debates last month. The sharp-tongued Besson has slapped down his leftist
detractors with mockery and insults, and even dismissed the growing
criticism from the right as "café clap-trap." In doing so, he has not only
shown the same defiant pugnacity that has become his boss's trademark, but
has also become Sarkozy's most effective political operative handling an
explosive issue. "Once he bolted the Socialist Party, Besson's very
political existence depended not only on joining Sarkozy's cause, but
hanging on to his coat-tails as high as they'd take him," says a former
adviser to conservative politicians who requested anonymity. "No one else
would dirty themselves with this nasty, divisive electoral ploy over
national identity, which made it just the job for Besson. He's convinced the
sky's his limit, so long as he does whatever Sarkozy orders." (See the top 10 political gaffes.)

But there's a risk to that: the tactic may backfire. Sarkozy's approval
ratings have fallen to a record low of 39% since the identity debates were
announced. Meanwhile, a poll this week showed that 55% of people consider
the debates "not necessary." And two months ago, 64% of respondents in
another poll called them merely "an electoral tool." The possibility that
this could lead to a spanking for the right in the March elections has only
grown as other right-wing politicians have followed Besson's lead with
provocative statements of their own. Earlier this month, a conservative
mayor in eastern France used the identity debates to describe immigrants in
France as "10 million people we pay to do jacks---." And on Dec. 14,
Secretary of State for Families Nadine Morano caused an uproar by appearing
to characterize young Muslim men in France as job-slacking, slang-speaking
louts who need to love their country more. (Read "Booing the 'Marseillaise': A French Soccer Scandal.")

The outcry over such statements  and the debates themselves  has
many conservative officials worried that the topic of national identity may
alienate far more mainstream voters than it seduces FN backers. If this
happens, it could produce a very bad March surprise for the right something that could cause Sarkozy to bolt from his friend's side and join
the growing ranks of Besson haters in the country.